DuPLO study - Measurement errors in dietary assessment

To monitor dietary intake and assess adherence to dietary guidelines, but also to assess associations between diet and disease, estimates of dietary exposure should be measured accurately. However dietary exposure is often measured with error. Understanding the nature and extent of measurement error enables the researcher to correct for this error and will also help in developing new and better dietary assessment methods.

The DuPLO study was set up to get more insight in the nature and extent of measurement errors in commonly used dietary assessment methods like 24-hour recalls and food frequency questionnaires. As reference methods biomarkers of intake and duplicate portions (200 participants collected on 2 occasions for 24 hour everything they consumed (foods and drinks) and this was analysed in the laboratory on various nutrients) were used. Multivariate measurement error models are used to assess the different types of error and correction factors. The DuPLO study is part of the NQplus validation study.